2 U.S. Orthodox Rabbis Rap Israeli Rabbinate for Ignoring Problems

Two prominent American Orthodox rabbis today sharply criticized the Israeli Chief Rabbinate for ignoring social and political problems in Israel. The criticism was expressed at the 39th annual convention here of the Rabbinical Council of America by Dr, Emanuel Rackman, professor of Judaic studies at City University of New York and rabbi of the Fifth Avenue Synagogue and Rabbi Walter Wurzburger, first vice-president of the Rabbinical Council and editor of its periodical “Tradition.”

But the Israeli Chief Rabbinate was defended by Rabbi Fabian Schonfeld, president of the Rabbinical Council, who observed that the “process of halachic shaping in every generation requires careful deliberation and it is unfair to demand immediate solutions for every problem from Israel’s rabbinate.” He contended that the role of religious authority is to find within the Torah “solutions to nettling religious, social and political problems.”

Rabbi Wurzburger scored Israel’s religious leadership for its failure to make an “effective contribution toward the resacralization of Jewish life by providing an example of ethical sensitivity and confronting courageously the grave social and moral issues besetting society.” He decried “this embarrassing silence” and added that “halachic Judaism cannot thrive in the narrow confines of a religious ghetto isolated from the mainstream of society.”

WARNS AGAINST SECULARIZATION

Rabbi Norman Lamm, professor of Jewish philosophy at Yeshiva University and rabbi of the Jewish Center of Manhattan, said Jewish scholars must achieve a greater understanding in the application of Jewish religious laws and must be made aware of the “social and psychological climate of our times….Legislation and judgements are of little value if pronounced in a vacuum.” he said.

Rabbi Rackman, in his remarks, urged Conservative and Reform rabbis not to strike up an alliance with secular bodies in Israel. He referred specifically to Justice Haim Cohn of Israel’s Supreme Court who, he charged, was conducting a campaign against Jewish religious law and was trying to influence Conservative and Reform rabbis in this country. Justice Cohn recently suggested that Reform and Conservative rabbis could successfully challenge the domination of the Orthodox religious authorities in Israel in Israel’s courts.

Addressing himself to the Conservative and Reform rabbis, Rabbi Rackman said “It ill behooves those who are committed to the religious heritage which is Judaism to let themselves he beguiled by Jews who hate that heritage into an alliance to put an end to the role of halacha in the Jewish State.” He said “the total secularization of the Jewish State would be tragic for Israel and world Jewry” and neither Conservative nor Reform Judaism “can profit from Israel’s secularization.”